Committees

I am Barbara Schonhofer

Founder, The Insurance Supper Club

Barbara Schönhofer is Chief Executive of Schonhofer Talent Advisory and Executive Search. She has advised insurance companies internationally in all areas of leadership talent and conducts strategic assignments in the property and casualty, life, pensions and health insurance and reinsurance markets. Barbara has 35 years of business leadership experience; originally in retail financial services, followed by 23 years in executive search.
Barbara founded the ISC (The Insurance Supper Club) 10 years ago. The Insurance Supper Club (ISC) is a business network for senior women operating in, or involved with, insurance. The ISC is affiliated with the CII’s IWF (Insuring Women's Futures) initiative; Barbara sits on the committee of IWF and leads the Careers in Risk part of the programme.
Barbara is a member of the London Insurance Institute, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers and sits on the committee of the Independent Women in Insurance Network (iWIN).

I am Barbara Merry

Non Executive Director

Graduated from the London School of Economics in 1979 with a language degree. Went on to qualify as a chartered accountant in 1982 and worked in the accounting profession at KPMG until 1985.
Joined the Corporation of Lloyd’s and during the ensuing 14 years was variously responsible for accounting, solvency, reporting, membership and capital matters aﬀecting Lloyd’s members, underwriting agents and brokers. Was involved in the Lloyd’s Reconstruction and Renewal plan.
In 1999, Barbara became Managing Director of the Omega Group and then joined the Hardy Underwriting Group as CEO in 2002.
Hardy manages syndicate 382 at Lloyd’s which underwrites a broad mix of business including marine, aviation, energy, property, specialty and catastrophe reinsurance.
The Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CNA based in Chicago in July 2012. Barbara stepped down as CEO in early 2014.
Barbara has served two terms on the Lloyd’s Market Association Board and has chaired the LMA’s training and development committee for 6 years. She was a member of the Council of Lloyd’s from 2007 to 2009. She is a member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Insurers and a Vice President of the Insurance Institute of London.
Currently, Barbara is closely involved in a number of initiatives associated with talent management and the diversity and inclusion agenda, namely the Inclusion@Lloyd’s group, the Insurance Supper Club, and IWIN, the women’s forum established under the auspices of the Worshipful Company of Insurers; she has a number of charitable interests, including as a trustee for the Barbican Arts Centre and a fundraiser for the charity Women for Women International; she is a business angel investor and a non executive director for Domestic and General Insurance Limited and Lloyd’s Broking group CGNMB LLP.

I am Ailsa King

Marsh, Chief Client Officer

Ms. King joins Marsh from Willis Towers Watson, where she worked for 25 years, and most recently served as Head of UK Client and Business Development. In this role, Ms. King was responsible for sales, client management, regional growth, industry segmentation and marketing. At Willis Towers Watson, Ms. King held numerous senior leadership positions including leader of the Risk Solutions client segment in the UK and Client Advocate for the retail and leisure and hospitality industries. From 1986 to 1991, Ms. King was an Account Executive in the Energy Division of Sedgwick, now part of Marsh.

I am Amanda Blanc

Amanda was appointed Group Chief Executive from 1st July 2016 having been CEO, AXA Insurance UK & Ireland since January 2016.
She joined the Board in March 2011 and appointed CEO, AXA Insurance Commercial Lines.
This is Amanda’s second career within AXA where she previously held various leadership roles in the Commercial Lines business from 1999 to 2003.
She rejoined AXA UK in 2011 from The Towergate Partnership, where she was Deputy Group CEO, with responsibility for the leadership of Towergate’s retail broking business.
Amanda has also held senior positions at Groupama, Commercial Union and Ernst & Young.
Amanda sits on AXA’s Global Property and Casualty Board and leads AXA’s Global SME initiative.
She is a member of the Board of the Association of British Insurers, Chairs the Insurance Fraud Bureau and was President of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2013. Currently Chair of the GIC at the ABI.
Amanda has an MBA obtained from Leeds Business School

I am Jane Portas

PWC, Partner

Following an early career as an auditor and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Jane spent lengthy periods at the UK regulator where her responsibilities included authorising and supervising insurers, implementing European Directives and developing insurance policy.

I am Monique Kooijman

CNA Hardy, Regional Director Benelux

I am Kelly Lyles

XL Catlin, Client and Country Management

Kelly Lyles is responsible for managing our Insurance presence around the world, a role which includes leading teams in Strategic Client & Broker Management, Global Programs Center of Excellence, Captives Center of Excellence and Portfolio Solutions. She has held other senior positions in the Company, including Chief Regional Officer, for Insurance and Deputy Chair of the Insurance Leadership Team, as well as Chief Executive of Global Professional Insurance operations.
She has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, including a number of roles in financial lines underwriting and management.
Before joining XL Group in 2014, Kelly served as Head of Specialty Lines for Europe, Middle East and Africa at AIG. Earlier, she served as AIG’s Country Manager in France, where she oversaw commercial and consumer business development, operations and systems, claims, finance, accounting, legal and human resources. She is a graduate of Villanova University.

I am Sian Fisher

CII, Chief Executive Officer

Sian Fisher has held senior roles in a Lloyd’s Syndicate, a UK and European insurance company, a start-up intermediary, a market leading MGA, a major international broker and US corporate. She was a founder and original Board director of the Managing General Agents’ Association and has held senior positions with both the CII and the Insurance Institute of London. She is a graduate of Oxford University with her ACII and an Exec MBA from Harvard.
In February 2016 she joined The Chartered Insurance Institute.
Managing General Agents’ Association- Founder Director and Board member
Former Vice President and Board member of CII
Vice President and former Council member IIL
Awarded CII Exceptional Service medal in 2010
Attained Chartered Insurer status 1995
Attained Associateship of the CII (ACII) 1991

I am Michelle Mason

AON, Managing Director

Michelle started with Aon UK at the beginning of 2017 and is Managing Director of the Global & Specialty business. She was previously at JLT where she was Head of Client Management for the Specialty Property & Casualty business. Michelle has 23 years’ experience in insurance and risk management covering cross class global account management and enterprise and operational risk management consulting, working with complex clients to develop and deliver their risk management and insurance strategies.

I am Olivia Cooper

Willis Towers Watson, Head of FINEX GB

Olivia is the Head of Finex GB (the Financial Lines and Executive Risk Business) at Willis Towers Watson. This is a 300 person business with employees in both Mumbai and UK. In this role she has matrix reporting into Alistair Swift, GB CRB Leader, Alexis Faber, Global Head of Finex, and Jeremy Wall, Chairman Finex Global. She has worked for the organization for 11 years, been in her current role 3 months, prior to this she served as the Finex Asia Regional leader based in Singapore, where she successfully connected the Finex teams across the region, and embedded a strong 3 year growth plan for FINEX in the region.

I am Hilary Browne

AIG, Head of Liabilities, UK

Hilary Browne was appointed to her current role, UK Head of Liabilities in June 2017. In this role Hilary has accountability and responsibility for all Liability underwriting within the UK and is a member of the UK Operating Committee. In addition to her UK responsibilities Hilary also is the Head of Liabilities and Financial Lines for South Europe, encompassing seven countries including France, Italy, Iberia and Ireland.
Hilary originally joined AIG in 2001 as a Casualty underwriter and quickly progressed in her career including being appointed to the AIG Ireland Board in 2008. Hilary and has served in a number of roles since, progressing to leadership across both Casualty, Commercial Lines and Distribution within Ireland as well as Liability in broader Europe and now the UK.
In 2016 Hilary implemented a global innovation project (focused on drivers behaviours); the initiative directly led to a reduction in claims for the client we partnered with, and has won multiple awards. In the theme of innovation Hilary is the Innovation Integrator in Europe working with the global innovation team and is the executive sponsor for the UK and Europe Internet of Things checklist.

I am Helen Prickford

Deputy UK CFO and CFO, UK Life

Helen joined Zurich on 4 January 2016 and took over as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) UK Life on 1 April 2016, becoming Deputy UK CFO and CFO, UK Life on 18 January 2017.
Helen has more than 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry.
She joined Zurich from Ageas, where she was Finance Director for eight years. At Ageas Helen was a member of the Board, responsible for all aspects of Finance and was a key part of the management team who more than doubled the size of the business, whilst delivering consistently strong results.
Prior to this, she spent 15 years in senior roles at Royal Sun Alliance and its associated companies, including as Finance Director of the UK Retail and Affinity business and Group Head of Investor Relations.
Helen lives in Salisbury with her husband Les and two children, Sophie and James. She enjoys walking and cycling and spending time with her family.